The Shins used to be one of my favorite bands. My favorite album of theirs is still Oh Inverted World, and will always be one of my favorites. They had such an awesome energy live, the goofiness of the fat guy on the drums contrasted with Mercer's sort of skinny chic persona, it was just perfect. Chutes was an excellent album as well, and even after making a lot of changes before Wincing it turned out pretty good too. I actually have hope that the next one will be good too, because Mercer has the potential to write the most amazing pop songs, he just resists his urges because he wants to be in another category of songwriter (I remember an interview where he talks about finding touchstones in, like, Mirah and stuff like that (and I fucking love Mirah but that's NOT how the Shins should sound.)) But that dangermouse album blew nuts.
I didn't really like Oracular and really didn't like Congratulations. I'm in that 75% that really only liked to dance to Kids and Time to Pretend. Because those are really fun, infectious songs, and I'm really not into mediocre psych-rock. I prefer dad rock.
Did anyone watch New Pornos instead of MGMT? Carl Newman made a joke, like, "you know they're not gonna play their hit, right?" And he said neither are we, but then they encored with Letter from an Occupant, which made my night.
Yeah, LOL'd at that AC Newman crack. Kinda wanted to see MGMT though since I love Congratulations (I'm a sucker for surf rock.), though I will punch the next person I see if I have to hear Time to Pretend again. Not necessarily a bad song, but not many more things make me mad than that opening synth line. But New Pornos were one of the main reasons I was there (AND THEY HAD BOTH NEKO AND DAN BEJAR WHICH IS AWESOME. PRIMAVERA HAD NEITHER YO)
MGMT's set was so much fun, but they went on right before Ween so my excitement level was at its peak for the weekend. We were all marching and dancing our way down from the hill to the very front of the pit, and I was telling everyone there was no way they'd play 'Kids' about two seconds before they ripped right into it.
Haha I was about to say the exact same thing. I will (like always) be buying this when it comes out next month but I really just can't resist a good leak. I'm really really enjoying this album so far. It's a stripped down, short 40 minutes of alt-country driven Decemberists tracks. Like I said, I wasn't a big fan of The Hazards of Love at all but this new one has roped me back in. Tons of really sweet swaying melodies which I missed from the last album.
Not to be 'that guy', but honestly I feel like everything after '5 Songs' is a step in the wrong direction. 'I Don't Mind', 'Shiny' and 'Oceanside' are probably my three favorite Decemberists songs (excluding 'Grace Cathedral Hill') but the Fancy Pirate thing has been getting old ever since the second time I heard 'A Cautionary Song'.
If they can get back to that I'd be the happiest Decemberists fan in the world.
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